Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Motel Hell

***DISCLAIMER***
The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I
encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion
(or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews
are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just
sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is
not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the
reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being
unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay.
4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews
feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on
Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional
live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching! I wonder how their Yelp! reviews are...

Motel Hell – 2 out of 5

I’ve heard of Motel Hell for some time now but have never taken
the time to see it.The first time I heard about it I thought it sounded silly but added it
to my Netflix (name drop, pay me!) queue and then quickly forgot about it.However, time makes fools of us all and it
showed up at my house (yes, I still have a DVD account with Netflix.I am still a fan of physical media.) and decided
that since it is October and Halloween isn’t too far away, I’ll take a gander
at it.It was fun but, realistically, I probably could
have waited longer to see it.

Motel Hello? Well, that's false advertising...

Ohhhhh, actually now it makes total sense.

The film centers on an out-of-the-way motel run by old
farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons).The two seem to live a simple life running
their quiet little motel and selling Vincent’s famous smoked meats.However, looks can be quite deceiving when
one day a traveler ends up on their property by the name of Terry (Nina Axelrod).Terry befriends the two along with their
brother, the local sheriff (Paul Linke) but soon learns that they have a
terrible secret:It seems that Vincent
and Ira have been kidnapping travelers who pass by and holding them hostage in a
macabre garden on their property until they ultimately decide to kill them and
use their bodies as a secret ingredient for the smoked meats!Now Terry must try to escape with her life or
see herself become a demented farmer’s food.

Also, star of Cheers and every Pixar movie to ever exist; John Ratzenberger, is inthe film!

Now, before you get all uppity and claim I spoiled the movie
by stating the reveal that Vincent kills people and makes them into dehydrated
snacks, I want to remind you that this film is 35 years old and the idea that
Vincent was a demented farmer who kills people and adds them to his meat treats
is the whole point of the film and wasn’t actually something they were trying
to keep secret in the story.It isn’t explicitly
told for a bit but it wasn’t actually hidden very well either.So, in short:ENOUGH WHINING ABOUT SPOILERS!!!

Instead of whining about spoilers, eat some jerky. Sweet, human jerky.Or hot dogs. We just learned they have human bits in them.

Okay, back to it, Motel Hell is a fairly amusing horror film that
dabbles just deep enough in the dark comedy pool to make it fun to watch.Granted, the ultimate decision to make the
film lean on the funny side ended up arising because of the silly nature of the
script during the film’s production and, I have to say, it wasn’t a bad move
for the movie to make.Before, after and
during the process of making this film, it was compared greatly to The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper was even once attached to direct) thanks to its
themes of backwoods folks, murder and cannibalism.This critique is not without merit but the
film is set apart from the infamous trendsetter horror film with Leatherface and that is
mostly thanks to its very bizarre story, dark comedy aspects and the awesome performance of Rory
Calhoun as Farmer Vincent.

Ha ha...whadda guy!

Nothing fake looking about that man's beard. Nothingat all.

If this film decided to take itself seriously, this film
would have either been absolutely terrible or something disturbingly
unsettling.However, judging from the
final product, I don’t know if the production for Motel Hell could have pulled
off a successfully horrifying and scary film.For example, Farmer Vincent buries the people he kidnaps in the garden
up to their necks where he feeds them until he sees they are ripe for being
killed and turned into a salty meat snack.That’s fine and is easily unsettling but this also involves old Vinnie
hypnotizing the victims and, for some reason, these people act like zombies the
moment they escape.I’m not entirely
sure why they act this way and I highly doubt that these elements (including
the hypnotism) could have translated into actual real terror but it works super effectively for the tone the film went with.

Until now, I think Porky's is the only film I've seen with Nancy Parsons.

One thing that bothered me about the film is the whole
aspect of Vincent and Ira owning a motel. Two things if you count the pointless inclusion of Wolfman Jack in the cast--he was barely in it. However, the plot point of owning a motel felt a bit pointless through much of the story.
Sure, it comes into play once but, for the most part, felt a little
superfluous.Going into
this film completely clean and without seeing a trailer, I thought this film
would center on the motel and Vincent would take travelers that stopped to rest
for a spell and let them rest eternally in his infamous meats.This concept only came into play once.It almost felt like the only reason the motel
existed was to act as a reference to the film Psycho and the connection the
Alfred Hitchcock classic has with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (I'll give you a hint: The connection is the infamous Wisconsin serial killer both films were inspired by).This, too, ends up being another weak element of the film as
too much of it feels like it is either trying to be or just plain copy more
popular horror films.

"Don't worry, Imma gonna come and git ya...I just can't see out of this damn pig head."

Overall, the entire film is really silly but silly in an
entertaining and fun way.I already
mentioned that the victims acting like zombies and the whole hypnosis elements
but there’s also a ridiculous Stockholm Syndrome aspect between Terry and
Vincent and a chainsaw battle between Vincent and his brother that is quite hilarious
because it was so clumsily edited and choreographed but that’s part of the
film’s charm.The most charming aspect
of them all, however, is the performance of Rory Calhoun.He knew exactly how to make the character of
Farmer Vincent both demented but likable in a weird way.His performance had that perfect balance of
being over-the-top and cheesy that it complimented the dark comedy elements but
restrained enough where he never made the film too silly to sit through.

But is it really Stockholm Syndrome? I mean, look at the way he fills out those overalls.

Motel Hell is a fairly entertaining film and I definitely
enjoyed it.The film is not without its
fair share of problems as it has a story that feels a tad sloppy, some of the
performances aren’t the best and some of the elements in the plot feel
pointless but the dark humor in it is amusing and Rory Calhoun is truly a joy
to watch.

Follow by Email

Subscribe To

Translate

Find a film...

About Me

I'm a geek, an atheist (who is also an ordained reverend), a peanut butter and jelly enthusiast, a man who shares the same name with a popular character from "Parks & Rec" and feels he can't live up to the awesomeness of the fictional character, was proudly banned from Reddit, an occasional Shakespearean performer, and a stand up comic.
Have any questions, recommendations or wanna share any theories on various movies? Email me at RevRonMovies@gmail.com and I'll talk about them on my new Q&A segment!